Home Energy Assessment Process

Why should homeowners consider having an energy assessment done?

The two primary motivations for homeowners to initiate having a home energy assessment are:

1. To access the provincial and federal incentive grants related to retrofitting existing homes: grant chart.
2. To have a federally certified energy advisor provide specific recommendations and a prioritized energy retrofit plan for each home and unique situation.

For other benefits visit this page.

What’s involved in the residential energy assessment process?

Each home provides a unique opportunity for improvements in energy efficiency and reductions of greenhouse gases that cause climate change. As a result, the assessment process for each home varies but the result is always a personalized to-do list of suggestions from a certified expert as demonstrated in this short video.

Typically a home energy assessment process includes two home visits that are required for a home to be eligible for the offered grants.

The first home visit is to be completed prior to any retrofit or renovation work being initiated if the work is to qualify for the offered incentive grants. The second visit is carried out within 18 months of the first to verify what work has been completed and that it meets the qualifying criteria set out by the grant programs.

The homeowner is charged a fee for each visit, plus GST (no PST) and mileage where applicable.

Here are the five steps of a home energy efficiency assessment as described by a homeowner who has documented the process as she experienced it (found in full here):

1. Find a certified energy advisor. Go to the LiveSmart at Home page. Enter your postal code to find the organizations that have certified Home Energy Advisors working in your area.

2. Schedule an evaluation. It takes between 90 minutes and two hours for the advisor to evaluate features
of your home like the insulation, heating and cooling systems, windows and doors.

To test air leakage, the energy advisor hooks up this giant fan to an exterior door to do what’s called the blower door, or air infiltration, test. The fan sucks air and as you walk around the house with it on, you can feel any cracks or leaks in your ceiling-mounted light fixtures, wall sockets, windows, doors, chimneys, and even plumbing pipes. It is a highly effective way to see where your house needs some sealing.

If you want a better idea of what this assessment looks like, watch the video I made of the highlights from my energy assessment. (Please remember that I already admitted I had a lot to learn about making videos!
– I can only get better.)

For this first visit, you pay $150 plus mileage and GST up front. If you make qualifying upgrades in the 18 months after this evaluation, you can have the $150 reimbursed (see step five).

3. Make upgrades. Do changes that work with your needs and budget. You can contact your energy advisor during this period to help guide your decisions. Remember to keep ALL your receipts and any information from contractors and suppliers on the purchases and upgrades you make.

4. Have a second visit with the advisor. On a second visit, the advisor will test your home’s energy efficiency and greenhouse gas reductions and give your home a score that measures its energy rating. This score can mean lower energy bills, a smaller environmental footprint, and likely increased home value. The second visit will cost about $150 plus GST, and this time you are responsible for the bill.

5. Conserve energy. The advisor will process your application for qualifying incentives from both the provincial and federal governments. You sit back in your favourite chair in your more energy efficient home and wait for two cheques to arrive to help contribute to the costs of the qualifying changes you made.

What general recommendations does an energy advisor provide?

The recommendations made by an energy advisor are only intended as suggestions—homeowners are free to choose which retrofits they would like to undertake—and are based on three prioritized categories:

1. Air sealing of the home (including due attention to ventilation to insure healthy indoor air quality is maintained)
2. Improving the building’s envelope - the parts or components of a home that divide the interior heated space from the unheated exterior areas such as the attic, walls (including windows and doors) floors and foundations)
3. Heating and cooling systems

These categories are prioritized to first address the demand side (keep the heat/coolness in) of energy efficiency and then the supply side (generating additional heat/coolness).

What level of home energy efficiency can a homeowner expect to achieve by undertaking retrofits?

According to Natural Resources Canada (NRCan), homes that are more than 25 years old have the potential to save an average of 35% of their energy use. Homes that are more than 50 years old could achieve an average of 38%.

NRCan uses the EnerGuide for Homes rating system to quantify the improvements one can achieve when energy retrofitting a home.

A home's energy efficiency level is rated on a scale of 0 to 100. A rating of 0 represents a home with major air leakage, no insulation and extremely high energy consumption. A rating of 100 represents a house that is airtight, well insulated and sufficiently ventilated and requires no purchased energy.

EnerGuide Rating Chart Type of House  Rating Older house not upgraded 0 to 50 Upgraded old house 51 to 65 Energy-efficient upgraded old house or typical new house 66 to 74 Energy-efficient new house 75 to 79 Highly energy-efficient new house 80 to 90 An "advanced house" that uses little or no purchased energy 91 to 100

Canada Mortgage and Housing Corporation has been working with partners to create examples of what increases can be achieved related to energy and water consumption with typical, inefficient homes. One such example is Now House™, a demonstration project in which a 60-year-old World War II house was turned into a near zero energy home.

Total household energy reductions of 50% to 90% can be achieved by addressing the majority of energy loads and the building’s envelope. Here is another example of an extreme retrofit (http://www.greenbuildingadvisor.com/green-basics/remodel-project-deep-energy-retrofit) where an existing home built with zero insulation is transformed into a net zero energy home.